The Borg Rules Supplement
One hundred and thirty-one cards. The return of the Borg affiliation, new former drones, the Hirogen affiliation (primed for the hunt), the Omega Particle, friends and foes from the Alpha Quadrant, expanded Warp Speed play… Resistance is futile. NEW RULES – STANDARD FORMAT Assimilation – When a personnel or ship is assimilated, its name, species, lore, miscellaneous icons, and restriction box (but not gender) now remain relevant. Beaming – The rule that Borg SHIELDS do not block transporter beams is cancelled. You may not beam through any SHIELDS unless a card allows it. Borg Use of Hand Weapons – Borg-affiliation personnel do not use hand weapons in any way (even if “stolen”). Scouting planets – The rule restricting Borg to beaming one scout at a time to scout a planet is cancelled. An objective that allows scouting a planet allows beaming down an Away Team of any size. NEW RULES – WARP SPEED • Card draws required to “even up” your hand may not be converted to downloads. • All non-Borg affiliations are allowed to mix and cooperate as if there were a universal treaty in effect. A player using affiliation cards may not stock any non-Borg personnel, ships, or facilities in their Warp Speed game deck. • Non-Borg affiliations have no affiliation attack restrictions. Normal attack restrictions apply to the Borg affiliation. • A Borg player may not target their opponent’s mission with a Borg objective. • When playing Borg, you achieve a full win by completing an objective targeting one of your space missions and an objective targeting one of your planet missions. NEW AFFILIATION Hirogen affiliation – This icon identifies personnel, ships, and outposts belonging to the Hirogen affiliation. The Hirogen affiliation has the standard attack restriction: it may initiate battle against any affiliation except its own (unless allowed by another card), but may return fire and counter-attack against anyone. NOTES AND CLARIFICATIONS Assimilate Starship – An active personnel is one which is not “stopped,” not disabled, and not in stasis. Borg Nanoprobes – A “Species 8472-related dilemma” is one that mentions Species 8472 in its lore. Capturing – Some cards and rules allow you to capture your opponent’s personnel. Captured personnel are disabled while they are captives and are escorted by your personnel as follows: • When first captured, captives are immediately relocated to one of your crews or Away Teams at that location, if possible (to the specific crew or Away Team making the capture, if any). • Otherwise, the capturing card remains in play as a temporary “trap” to hold the captives on your side of that location. (If there is a planet at that location, the trap is on the planet.) Your ship with transporters (in space) or your Away Team (on a planet) can subsequently take custody of the captives if present with the trap, then discard the trap card. Each of your crews and Away Teams may escort any number of captives, and may move them around like Equipment cards. You may not assimilate or initiate battle against personnel you have captured, unless a card or rule allows or requires it. Captives that are held by a trap or escorted may be rescued only by using a card that specifically rescues or releases captives. Unattended captives (those not held by a trap or escorted) may be rescued by their owner’s other personnel present, without any special card. Whenever a captive is rescued or released, all capturing- related cards played on that captive are discarded. All captured cards are returned to their owner at the end of the game. Downloading – When a card allows a download in place of a card draw, you may place the downloaded card in your hand rather than playing it, if you wish. All other downloaded cards must be played immediately unless otherwise specified. Dual-Personnel Cards – A dual-personnel card, such as Rebi and Azan, counts as two personnel, but only one card. Anything which happens to one of the individuals on a dual-personnel card automatically happens to the other. If the card is dual- affiliation, both personnel must have the same affiliation at the same time. If a dilemma affects personnel individually, examine each individual on the dual- personnel card separately. However, in a personnel battle, both individuals on the card jointly engage a single adversary, combining their STRENGTH values together to determine the outcome of the personal combat. Dual-personnel cards may cause group limits to be modified. For example, suppose one or more of your personnel have been selected, either by choice or randomly, and a limit is in effect (e.g., “Away Team member with lowest CUNNING”, “two crew members”). If one of your dual-personnel cards causes the group limit to be exceeded, your opponent must choose either to increase the limit to accommodate the excess, or require that the group selection process be repeated. However, if the limit is one, it is always increased to two automatically. For example, Aggressive Behavior selects one crew member to die. If a dual- personnel card is selected, the group limit of one automatically increases to two. THE BORG ™ RULES SUPPLEMENT CUSTOMIZABLE CARD GAME ™ ✶ Enigma icon – This symbol represents things whose nature is mysterious or unexplained, such as the Borg Queen and the Unicomplex. Each player may have only one copy of each enigma card in play at any time. Such cards are “non- universal” – neither unique nor universal – and thus are not affected by cards that specifically affect unique or universal cards. Equinox Doctor and The Artificial Intelligence – “NO INTEGRITY” and “NO STRENGTH” on these Personnel cards are undefined attributes. An undefined attribute is treated as zero for making comparisons or totalling attributes, and cannot be modified with other cards. Persona – Two Personnel cards are instances of the same persona if they are duplicates (copies); or if they have the exact same card title; or if one has the other’s name in boldface type in its lore. You may not have more than one instance of the same non-universal persona in play at the same time, including personnel who have been captured, assimilated, or are otherwise controlled by your opponent. You and your opponent may each have a copy (or a version) of the same non-universal persona in play. For example, Chakotay and Captain Chakotay are both versions of the Chakotay persona, and you may have only one of them in play at a time. On the other hand, you may have Icheb in play at the same time your opponent has Second in play. Persona replacement – When you have one version of a persona in play and a second version of that same persona in your hand, you may exchange them at the start of your turn. Any cards already affecting the first version (e.g., Cortical Node Implant, Rituals of the Hunt) automatically transfer to the second one, if applicable. Those cards not applicable return to their owners’ hands. Skills – When a card allows you to select, add, double, or share personnel skills, you may select, add, double, or share only regular skills. When selecting skills, you may select a skill only at the x1 level. For example, the Borg Queen can select Diplomacy (but not Diplomacy x2). Valid choices include any personnel type except ANIMAL and any regular skill that exists in the game. When adding or doubling skills, skill multipliers are retained. For example, if Harkan adds the skills of his “prey” (Fennim) with Rituals of the Hunt, Harkan will have Anthropology x2, Exobiology x2, and MEDICAL x2. If Second doubles the skills of an assimilated Ranjen, Ranjen will have ENGINEER x2, Navigation x4, and Physics x2. THE BORG Borg Personnel – Most Borg Personnel cards represent drones. A drone’s lore identifies it as such and lists its species of origin (or “Biological Distinctiveness”). The Borg Queen is not a drone. (Throughout this section, the term “Borg” refers to personnel of affiliation. Former Borg of non- affiliations are not drones.) Gender is irrelevant to the Borg; Borg personnel are not affected by gender-related game text on non-Borg cards (e.g., Love Interests, Matriarchal Society). Borg personnel have no classifications. Borg Subcommand Icons – Each Borg personnel has an icon identifying which subcommand ( Communication, Navigation, or Defense) it is assigned to within the Borg collective. Subcommand icons are used primarily to staff Borg ships, but also have other uses indicated by cards. Some Borg, such as the Borg Queen, have more than one subcommand icon, but may each meet only one ship staffing requirement at a time unless otherwise specified. Borg-Affiliation Ships – Each Borg ship has a bonus point box. These bonus points are earned by your non-Borg opponent whenever he destroys your Borg ship in battle (and only in battle). Cooperation – Borg don’t mix or cooperate with cards of other affiliations. A player using affiliation cards may not stock any non-Borg personnel, ships, or facilities in their game deck. A card bearing the “Borg Use Only” icon in its title bar can be stocked in your deck and used only when playing the Borg affiliation. Current Objective – Unlike other affiliations, Borg never attempt missions. Instead, a Borg player uses Objective cards to accomplish goals such as destroying a ship, scouting a space location, or assimilating a planet. When you are playing Borg and you have an uncompleted Objective card face up in play, this is defined as your current objective. You are limited to one current objective at a time. You may have any number of non- objectives in play at a time. (You may also have other cards such as incidents in play.) When you play (or activate) a Borg Objective card, you must immediately target an appropriate location, ship, personnel, etc., as specified by the objective. Objectives may target solved or unsolved mission locations. Scoring points – A Borg player scores points, both positive and negative, only from cards and cards which specify that they affect Borg. When you or your Borg are confronted with any other card which is point-related, play out the card but ignore the points. (If that card presents a choice, you must choose an option which is not point-related, if possible.) Points you score from completing objectives are non-bonus points. Any other points you score are bonus points. Borg Away Team Restrictions – Your Borg may not form Away Teams except when counter-attacking or when allowed by your current objective or another card. Borg Battle Restrictions – Your Borg may not initiate battle except when counter- attacking or when allowed or required by your current objective (e.g., Eliminate Starship) or another card. Subject to these restrictions, they may attack any other affiliation, including Borg. Each of your ships, facilities, or Away Teams that wishes to initiate a battle must have a personnel, except when counter-attacking. Other Borg Restrictions – Borg do not commandeer (they assimilate instead), and do not use hand weapons for any purpose. Abduction – Cards such as Borg Nanoprobes or Reassimilate Lost Drone may allow your Borg to abduct a personnel. If this occurs during personal combat, both combatants cease to participate in the battle and may immediately beam away (if possible), but are still “stopped.” The abducted personnel is escorted by your Borg present and may be moved around like equipment. If the abducted personnel is ever unescorted, your opponent can rescue them with his own personnel present. Abducted personnel are disabled, and do not participate in battles. They are not captives and are not affected by cards that affect captives. An abducted personnel who becomes assimilated is no longer considered abducted. Assimilation – You may assimilate planets or your opponent’s personnel and ships by using Objective and other cards that allow assimilation. Personnel assimilation – When your Borg assimilate an opposing personnel, it becomes a Borg drone under your control (however, your opponent must still obey the persona rule and may not report another instance of that persona) and it undergoes the following transformations: • Its affiliation changes to . • Its gender becomes irrelevant to the Borg. • Its classification (if any) becomes its first-listed regular skill. • It retains any existing subcommand icons. If it was non-Borg-affiliation, its staffing ability changes to a subcommand icon, as follows: Old Staffing New Icon Neither icon A drone will never have more than one copy of each subcommand icon. For example, if Seven of Nine is assimilated as a drone, her icon is lost rather than converted. • Its attributes adapt to service the collective based on its subcommand icons, as follows (any attribute not set by a subcommand icon is set to 5): icon sets INTEGRITY to 7 icon sets CUNNING to 7 icon sets STRENGTH to 7 Borg do not assimilate (or target for assimilation) holographic re-creations. Such personnel are excluded from any selections for abduction or assimilation. Ship assimilation – When your Borg assimilate an opposing ship, you take control of that ship (but your opponent must obey the persona rule) and it undergoes the following transformations: • Its affiliation changes to . • Borg staffing requirements do not change. Non-Borg staffing requirements adapt to service the Collective: Old Requirement New Requirement Other icon Other requirements Irrelevant Any carried ships aboard are assimilated (but opposing personnel and equipment aboard are not). Planet assimilation – When you assimilate a planet, any opposing personnel, equipment, and landed ships on that planet are assimilated. Any opposing facilities at that location, all personnel and equipment in or aboard a facility, and all ships docked at a facility are also assimilated. Personnel and equipment aboard an assimilated ship are not assimilated. You may report cards to an assimilated facility in accord with normal native quadrant reporting rules. Any seeded artifacts (or cards seeded like artifacts) are placed face up on the planet and may be later acquired by any non- Borg personnel present. Mission attempts may not be made at assimilated planets, and the mission affiliation icons become irrelevant (facilities requiring a matching affiliation icon may no longer be built there). Scouting – Unlike other affiliations, Borg never attempt missions. Instead, they use Objective cards to scout locations or ships. Scouting conceptually represents overcoming resistance (encountering dilemmas) and gathering data. • Scouting Locations – Begin scouting a location as you would begin a mission attempt with non-Borg: select and beam your Away Team to a planet, or select a ship and crew at a space mission, then announce that you are scouting the location and begin encountering and resolving dilemmas. Play out points-related dilemmas but ignore the points. Discard gender-related dilemmas. Ignore text such as “Mission may not be attempted;” however, “Mission continues” means “Scouting continues” for Borg. When Borg are scouting a location, any artifacts (or cards seeded like artifacts) encountered there are moved to the back of the seed stack as usual. When you complete the objective targeting the location, the artifacts are placed face up on the mission and may be acquired later by any non-Borg personnel present. (Borg may not acquire artifacts without a card that specifically allows them to do so.) • Scouting Ships – Begin scouting an enemy ship by beaming over a single scout. (You will need a card that allows you to beam through your opponent’s SHIELDS, such as the Annexation Drone, Eight of Eighteen.) Until the objective is completed or discarded, if at any point you do not have an active Borg aboard the ship, you may beam another single scout aboard during your turn. If your opponent attacks your scout(s) during his turn, you may counter-attack during your next turn with any number of Borg (if the ship remains at the location of the attack). Those Borg are free to remain on the enemy ship. Scouting a planet or space location is complete at the end of your turn if no dilemmas remain to be encountered. Scouting an enemy ship is complete at the end of your turn if you have any active Borg aboard that ship. Your Borg must complete scouting before you may probe (at the end of your turn) to determine your current objective’s outcome. You may not probe on the same turn in which your Borg completed scouting. You also may not probe if your Borg participated in any battles at the targeted location (or at the location of the targeted ship) during your current turn or during your opponent’s previous turn. Probing – Probing is a feature of some Objective and other cards which uses card icons to determine a randomized outcome. This explanation uses the Objective card “Eliminate Starship.” When a card requires or allows you to probe, you do so at the end of your turn (just before your card draw) by revealing and examining the top card of your draw deck, called the probe card. • Start with the first icon in the objective’s probe list. If that icon appears anywhere on the probe card, first replace the probe card on your draw deck and then execute the appropriate outcome for that icon. If not, look for the second icon in the probe list, then the third, and so on. Always examine the icons in the probe list from top to bottom, and execute only the first appropriate outcome. The position of the icon on the probe card is irrelevant. In the example, suppose the probe card is Reassimilate Lost Drone, which has both and icons. Only the first outcome (Wreckage) is carried out, because is the first icon in the probe list. • If there are no icon matches, simply replace the probe card. This is defined as probing with no outcome. Some probe outcomes “complete” the objective and tell you to discard it or relocate it as a marker. Other outcomes allow the objective to remain in play. You may continue probing on successive turns until the objective is nullified, discarded, or completed. If two or more cards allow or require you to probe, announce all of them at once and reveal only one probe card (using it to resolve the probes in any order you wish). However, cards which instruct you to “immediately probe” are resolved individually, without waiting for the end of your turn. Skill-sharing – Some cards such as the Borg Vinculum allow your Borg to share skills. All regular skills are shared, including those that do not actually appear in skills boxes, such as the selected skill of the Borg Queen and the classifications of assimilated personnel which have been converted into skills. Example: you have an Away Team on a planet consisting of two Borg: Augmentation Drone Cybernetics, MEDICAL Sentinel Drone SECURITY and you have a Borg ship orbiting that planet with a Borg Vinculum and the following crew aboard: Ranjen (assimilated) ENGINEER, Navigation x2, Physics Network Drone ENGINEER, Physics, Navigation Heuristics Drone Computer Skill, Honor, MEDICAL Identify the highest individual level of each different regular skill among all of these Borg. (Special skills may not be shared.) In this example, these skills are Cybernetics, MEDICAL, SECURITY, ENGINEER, Navigation x2, Physics, Computer Skill, and Honor. Thus, each of these five Borg has every one of these skills (not just the Borg). Now suppose the Augmentation Drone is killed. Because there is no longer a Borg on the planet, only the three crew members on the ship share skills (they each have ENGINEER, Navigation x2, Physics, Computer Skill, Honor, and MEDICAL). If the Heuristics Drone is killed, none of these Borg share skills (because the Borg Vinculum requires a Borg present for its use).